During the normal course of using trailers or other vehicles it is necessary to latch, secure and seal the door against unwanted entry of persons or substances, such as water. Latches for securing doors and the like are widely known and readily available. However, many such latches are difficult to latch and/or unlatch and do not provide adequate sealing between the door and the vehicle body, thereby allowing the entrance of water and other liquids into the storage compartment. The latches often require a relatively high amount of force from the user to close the latch.
Latching device such as those taught in U.S. Pat. No. 2,339,537 to Wise, U.S. Pat. No. 2,727,774 to Marple et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,722 to Galbreath et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,586 to Hahn et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,515 to Dowling are known. However, many of these devices are quite complicated and include a large number of moving parts.
A long felt need exists for a latching device that is easy to latch, requires a minimal amount of parts and overcomes the other disadvantages of the prior art.